Documenting Interpretive Decisions in Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto in E-flat Major A Retrospective Practice- and Performance-Based Framework for Philippine Tertiary Music Education

Abstract

Joseph Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto in E-flat Major, Hob. VIIe:1, is a canonical work through which advanced trumpeters negotiate Classical style, modern valve-trumpet technique, and the historical implications of Anton Weidinger’s keyed trumpet. This article reports a retrospective, single-performer practice-led interpretive inquiry grounded in the author’s doctoral performance work at Philippine Women’s University. During 2025–2026, the author prepared the concerto through dozens of practice sessions and presented it in a public performance at the university. The study addresses two questions: (1) how can historical knowledge, score analysis, comparative listening, embodied technical experimentation, repeated practice, and public performance experience be connected transparently to interpretive decisions; and (2) how can that decision process be translated into observable learning outcomes for higher music education? The evidence comprises reconstructed first-person reflection on the practice process and public performance, present re-examination of selected score locations, published historical and pedagogical scholarship, and documented metadata from contrasting recordings. The practice and performance are completed artistic activities rather than hypothetical teaching scenarios. However, because the precise session count and duration, exact performance date and venue within the university, complete rehearsal recordings, and a full contemporaneous practice archive are unavailable, the study does not present the reflective record as a chronological experimental dataset. Instead, each finding is identified according to its evidentiary basis and level of certainty. The integrated movement analyses identify restrained long-range growth in the first movement, breath-led harmonic continuity in the Andante, and rhythmically buoyant technical control in the finale as the principal interpretive priorities. The article contributes a transparent method for linking sustained artistic practice, public performance, historical context, measure-specific problems, documented decisions, and outcomes-based assessment in Philippine tertiary music education. A four-stage preparation cycle is proposed for future students and is distinguished from the completed practice-and-performance evidence on which the present analysis is based.